The Final Days
by AnnaKW
Summary: Just a one shot about Lou's thoughts in the final days of her life.


**The Final Days**

Summary: This takes place around 1920. This is a reflection from the final Young Rider's point of view.

Watching the sun set, she reflected on the past. She glanced down at the scrapbook in her lap smiling as it feel open to a sketch Ike had done of their family. Another sketch he'd done was of their original horses. She remembered riding with the Pony Express like it was yesterday.

How she had missed Sam and Emma so much when they'd left for their own life. She remembered hating Rachel at first; the woman had tried to take Emma's place and for herself that just hadn't worked.

Ike had been a source of comfort and his death had hit the family hard. Buck, a wonderful young man who'd been so easy to talk to even if his way of life was somewhat different then hers, had been hurt the most by this tragedy. Ike had been his lifelong friend. She remembered Noah coming to join them and how his death had also been a source of misery for the group. Every time she got close to someone, a bullet would rip her apart. Her heart had cried out with pain.

Then there was Teaspoon; how could she forget the true father figure that he'd been? Teaspoon had been the only father she'd ever really known. Her eyes misted as she thought about the old man's way of life. He could eat an onion raw, and yet keep his eyes dry. He could shoot just as well as the rest of them. No one could hold a light to him. The day he'd found out she was a girl had been the weirdest day of her life, but also the happiest because she no longer had to hide who she really was.

She flips to another page where a telegram is pasted onto a yellowed piece of paper. It dated back to 1863.

_Dear Kid and Louise,_

_I am sad to have to inform you that Teaspoon has passed away. The funeral is in two days. _

_Buck._

They had all met up together, she and the Kid, Cody, Buck, Sam and Emma, Rachel, and Jimmy. The funeral had been filled with tears but completely unlike the deaths of Ike and Noah. Teaspoon had lived a good long life. He'd been old and had died in his sleep. Though they had not known it at the time, Teaspoon's funeral had been the last time they'd all see each other.

Rachel's death had been sad but, though she'd been close to her she'd never felt as near to Rachel as she had to Emma. She loved the woman dearly and would miss her of course. Rachel's way of mothering had been different from Emma's very protective style. She'd encouraged the Kid and Lou to act on their feelings, while Emma probably wouldn't have encouraged it. Her death came only months before she and the Kid would find out about Sam.

They received a letter from Emma describing the way Sam had stopped a man from killing a lady, only to be killed himself. While staying with Emma, she lost her friend and mentor to what she believed was a broken heart.

In 1876 the hardest news had came to her. Jimmy had been killed in a saloon while playing poker. She didn't understand why this had happened and had wept silently for months when the Kid was busy at the barn, or busy as the marshal of their town. Her fingers traced the outline of Jimmy's picture on his page as she thought about the man she'd almost fallen in love with.

In 1880 word came of Buck's death. He had died in battle, trying to help protect his Kiowa homeland. Buck wouldn't have wanted it to be any other way. The Indian had been a very good friend, one she could depend on. Buck's wife Morning Song separated herself from the rest of the family. No one had tried to keep her apart of it.

Cody's death had happened just three years ago. He'd been an old man though. Her thoughts drifted to those of Cody, the star of the show. Cody had done everything he'd ever dreamed of and more. She remembered watching one of his shows with her husband and the joy that she'd felt as she watched her brother doing what he loved.

Just a few days ago, the Kid's body had worn out. Years of hard work had finally taken its toll on him. She turned her head slightly and looked at his side of the bed, small tears pooling in her eyes. She thought back on their relationship, glancing through the scrapbook as she did so, his compassionate eyes staring back at her. She could not help but think about that curly hair of his, and running her fingers through it. The Kid's attitude on life had been strangely different then so many people. She stopped at a page in the scrapbook. It was a clipping from her old journal. She smiled a little as she read it;

_The Kid discovered I was a girl today. He nearly undid me though, trying to keep me from riding on with him and the others. Why can't he understand that I have to do my job? I need this money; otherwise I will not be able to take care of Miah and Tessie. _

_The Kid is cute though. I've always thought he was but of course I couldn't act on it since he didn't know I was a girl. But now he knows, I wonder how things will be between us? I hope they will be good. I hope that one day he'll like me for who I am, not for something I can't be._

She sighed softly as she closed the scrapbook. She sat it on an end table and starred back outside at the now darkened sky. She missed her family but she knew that one day soon, as the sun was setting she to would leave this world behind.


End file.
